Foundation of cultural cognitive Science: Data-driven investigation on long-term cognitive change

2020 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K21814
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 10:Psychology and related fields
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Saiki Jun 京都大学, 人間・環境学研究科, 教授 (60283470)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 上田 祥行 京都大学, こころの未来研究センター, 特定講師 (80582494)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-06-28 – 2021-03-31
• Keywords: 文化間比較 / 視覚認知 / 視覚探索 / 文字認識 / 視覚的景観

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Visual cognition varies across cultures, but its underlying mechanisms remain unknown. Elucidating effects of long-term experiences by psychological experiments is quite difficult, and the current study employed a complementary approach using computer simulations with large datasets reflecting visual experiences. Using a saliency map model, we showed that letters and attentional window sizes could account for the cultural difference in visual search. To examine the effects of visual differences of city-views on visual cognition, we conducted preliminary analyses of a large image data set composed of Japanese city-view pictures. Furthermore, from psychological experiments investigating priming effects, we showed that short-term visual experiences are insufficient to induce cultural differences in visual cognition.

Free Research Field

認知科学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

文化比較研究は人間の認知が長期経験により多様性を持つことを示してきたが、多様性を生み出すメカニズムを明らかにするための研究の方法論を提示したという学術的意義を持つ。実験と構成的手法を組み合わせることで文化による認知の変容を説明できる理論の構築が期待できる。また、文化的多様性に配慮した環境デザインや製品開発を進めていくための人間の特性に関する基礎データを提供するという社会的意義を持つ。